Sovereign wealth funds need to take immediate action to mitigate the effects of climate change, according to a first of its kind survey of sovereign wealth funds.
As geopolitical risks increasingly stalk developed markets, asset owners sifting through the noise for long-term trends believe a fragmented world is here to stay. We spoke to CalSTRS, OPTrust, PFA and USS about the impact on their portfolios.
The reallocation of capital towards sustainable companies is happening in real time and will accelerate, according to Larry Fink who is investing in technology and people to develop systems that can prove “climate risk is investment risk”.
Tim Hodgson, co-head of the Thinking Ahead Group, goes through an elaborate exercise to determine how much of the climate problem the institutional investment industry owns. The first step, he says, in finding a solution.
New Zealand Super’s low-carbon reference portfolio has outperformed the original reference portfolio, adding NZ$800 million to the fund and providing evidence of ESG alpha. The low-carbon reference portfolio, that until now has had targets of reducing emissions intensity by 20 per cent and its exposure to potential emissions from fossil fuel reserves by 40 per cent, has added about 60 basis points per annum to performance since it was brought in.
Climate Action 100+ illustrates asset owners’ ability to come together to solve the tragedy of the commons, said Anne Simpson, managing investment director, board governance and sustainability at US pension giant CalPERS. She said once investors realise that risk and return comes from managing financial, human and natural capital then ESG became a fundamental part of investing.
The Harvard endowment is about half way through its transition to external investment management and will work with its service providers to implement the university’s new directive, to position the portfolio in line with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
There is a lack of understanding in investment decision-making about how big the climate crisis is which could lead to investments and risks being mis-directed, according to Professor Cameron Hepburn, Professor of Environmental Economics at Oxford University.